cutting homemade edge banding

[Matt Ralston]

Howdy folks,

I’m making a small box for my dad that is going to have edgebanding on it. I made the edge banding out of stacks and stacks of dyed veneers, and I have a lot of time into it. At this point all that is left is to slice the laminated block into thin strips of 1/16 or less. The problem is, I don’t have a bandsaw. I’m concerned that if I use my table saw (even w/ zero clearance insert and a nice sharp 60 tooth blade) I’ll blow apart the banding or will be making an unsafe cut.

Any suggestions for a sled or jig to use to do this? Can I just make a push shoe with a lip on the back that will ride over the blade; then set the fence at 1/16th and run the whole mess through? worried about kick back if I do that.

thanks much.

[Chris Padilla]

Matt, pictures would be nice but if you don't have those handy, what is size of the laminated block? Do I assume you don't have a square edge anywhere? Also, what is the grain direction in accordance to the size dimensions?

The size and grain direction will influence the blade choice and jig thought process.

[Larry Browning]

Matt,
Have you seen the microjig Grripper. Many of us got in on a special purchase a few months ago. These work great for very thin rips! You can go to their web site to see one. www.microjig.com

Larry

[Matt Ralston]

Pictures at home and unavailable right now. The block is 1/2 inch thick, 3 inches wide, and 14 inches long. Grain runs parallel w/ the long edge. I need to cut parallel with the long face to create 14 inch long strips. I have a jointed long side right now, parallel faces, and it wouldn't be hard to four square the whole thing.

I'm torn between making the push shoe described in my first post and setting the fence (actually, a low aux. fence) 1/16 from the blade, or setting a removable stop to the left of the blade and moving the fence each time. As the piece is only 3 inches wide, in either event I'm going to have short clearance between the fence and the blade at some point...

Larry, thanks for the suggestion. I'm balking on the grrippers because of the price, but wonder if I could make something similar.

thanks again

[Chris Padilla]

Okay, I have a better idea now.

Use a piece of 1/2" stock (plywood, MDF, particleboard...cheap is name of the game here) that is at least 14" by, oh, about 8" + the 3" of your block...so >= 14" by 11".

Now cut a rectangle that is 3" by 13" out of the board. Notice that your block should fit nicely into this cut out and is supported by a small tail? Hopefully the attached pic explains everything.

I would do the following, however, to the jig:

(1) Add some sandpaper to the edge of the jig so the block can 'stick' to it. You'll be wondering as you get thinner and thinner if that small piece is going to stay put!! OR

(2) Use some double-stick tape to stick it good to the jig. OR

(3) Use some hot-melt glue to temporarily glue it to the jig.

Now, about the strips. You will need some spacers (bright green color) of the thickness you want the edge-banding to be to advance both the jig and the block into the saw blade. The smooth portion of credit cards are precisely 1/32"!! Seriously. I keep all my old ones. First, put another long, square board (light color) against the fence (grey), then the spacer, then the jig.

The reason for the long board against the fence is so that you can maintain the placement of the spacer(s). You will slide the whole she-bang along the fence.

If you can move your fence incrementally how you want, then you can forego the long fence board and spacers.

[Pat Salter]

we do quite a bit of banding where I work and what we do is cut the strips a little wide, glue/nail them on and then rout them flush with a flush bit. We usually stand the shelves (or whatever) on edge with 3/4" spacers (scrap pieces) in between and then use the router. we usually then put a small roundover bit on and round over the edges from there. Just have to be carefull of nails :rolleyes: good luck.

[Matt Ralston]

outstanding. Thank you for all the replies. The spacer thing is a neat trick I hadn't thought of.

Thanks much.

[Chris Padilla]

Matt,

There are lots of ways to do the spacers on this jig. You probably don't have a ton of credit cards laying around. You could make spacers out of scrap wood, as well. Two stepped wedges would work. An 8-32 threadded screw (flat head) would work (or any machine screw...32 threads per inch is good to use for obvious reasons...1 full turn is 1/32"...2 full turns is 1/16"). Have fun...post what you end up doing so we can learn, too! :)

Nice to see another Coloradoan...check my info...I'm originally from Broomfield...went to college in Ft. Collins AND Boulder...I miss SNOW!! :(

[Matt Ralston]

Chris,

Coloradan going on 6 years now. Live in Golden now, but have lived in Boulder and Longmont. Snow, heck, we got snow week before last, and I'm skiing this weekend. :)

I'll post pics of the project tomorrow. Its a curved top box to hold about 9 watches, veneered and eventually set up with the aforementioned banding.

[Jamie Buxton]

Back before I owned a bandsaw, but I wanted to cut strips as thin as 1/16th on the table saw, I found a way that masking tape helped. I'm sure you've accidentally ripped strips 1/16th thick with a table saw and a rip fence. The challenge is to make sure the saw doesn't grab that thin strip and shatter it, or suck it down through the table insert. I set the fence so that the thin strip was the offcut -- that is, not trapped between the blade and the fence. Then I'd stick some masking tape to the outside face of that offcut, near the front end my stock. I'd do the rip operation, using the free end of the masking tape to gently pull the thin strip away from the blade. It doesn't take much force to bend the thin strip, and the masking tape's adhesive is good enough. All you need to be able to do is keep that thin strip from hitting the back edge of the blade.

The downside with this trick is that you must move the fence for each strip. If you need all the strips to be exactly the same thickness, this can be a challenge. However, if you're going to inlay them, you'll probably be sanding them down flush after the inlay, so this shouldn't bother you too much.

[Todd Burch]

Matt, when I want thin edge banding, I start thick.

Let's say I have a cherry plywood shelf and I want a 1/16" piece of curly maple on the front edge. I'll prepare a curly maple blank, just a bit thicker than the plywood, and make it 1" or more wider, and longer than my plywood shelf (which is itself longer than needed, say by 1/2".

I'll glue the thick maple to the cherry plywood. No cauls are needed, no nails, no biscuits - just glue. Once the glue is dry (enough), I'll rip the plywood shelf/maple edging assembly to leave the 1/16" of maple. I then sand the edging flush to the ply faces (and if I have other shelves, I'll start those glue-ups too). You can even sandwish the maple between two cherry shelves (like an Oreo cookie) to speed things up.

Once all the shelves are edged, I'll flip the plywood around, so the maple is against the fence, and rip the shelf to final width. Then, I'll crosscut the plywood shelf to length, trimming just enough off the first end to get a clean end, then taking whatever else on the opposite end to achieve the final length.

[Matt Ralston]

Allright, thought I'd post some progress pics of the box and the banding, before I slice it into little bits. Box is birch with maple veneer. The top is bent laminations of basswood. The edges, which look a little rough now, will get a strip of basswood and the edgebanding.

[Jamie Buxton]

Matt ---
Did you dye the wood? If so, how did you get the dye to penetrate so far into the wood? It look like your colored layers are 1/8th inch or so, but where you've planed the edges, they're dyed through and through.

Jamie

[Matt Ralston]

The wood is dyed poplar. Got it from woodriverveneer.com. Each colored layer is actually two stacked pieces of veneer of about 1/16 inch thick each. Pretty neat though that the color is all the way through. :)